Analyst Upgrades: Goldman Sachs, Micron, BioMarin Pharmaceutical

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN)

Josh Selway

Feb 16, 2016 at 9:25 AM

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Analysts are weighing in on banking stock Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), chipmaker Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), and drugmaker BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on GS, MU, and BMRN.

GS is poised to maintain Friday's upward momentum, after a bullish note from J.P. Morgan Securities. The brokerage firm lifted its opinion on Goldman Sachs Group Inc to "overweight" from "underweight," and upped its price target by $10 to $180 -- a 23% premium to Friday's close at $146.13 -- saying it expects the bank to buy back shares since its stock is trading below tangible book value. Additionally, it named GS a "top pick" among U.S. investment banks. Shares of GS are now 1.9% higher in electronic trading, as they look to recover from a nearly 19% year-to-date hole. Sentiment in the options pits is certainly bullish. The stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) of 1.82 lands in the 70th annual percentile.

An upgrade to "buy" from "neutral" for MU at Mizuho is seemingly taking precedent over a trio of price-target cuts from CLSA, Nomura, and Wedbush this morning, as the shares are up 3.2% ahead of the open. This potential pop would mark a change of pace for the shares of Micron Technology, Inc., which have taken a 69% year-over-year nosedive to trade at $10.02. However, short-term speculators have remained more call-skewed than normal. This is according to MU's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.43, which is just 2 percentage points from a 12-month low.

BMRN is on track to take advantage of an upgrade to "buy" at Stifel, adding 3.5% in pre-market trading. Shareholders would certainly welcome this price action, since the stock hit an annual low of $62.12 a week ago. In fact, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. has trailed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by over 28 percentage points in the past three months, last seen at $70.08. It's not surprising, then, to see option traders so inclined to buy long puts. BMRN's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX stands at 2.27 -- in the 93rd percentile of its annual range.

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